july 2018 District Bulletin

From the Governor's Desk

whose job is membership in your club?

If you’re imagining right now your Club Membership Chair or perhaps your Club President, instead, look in the mirror. August is Rotary Membership Month. While we celebrate its importance during this month, every month is membership month. As importantly, every Rotarian has some responsibility to contribute in a meaningful manner.

We find there are typically two types of membership stewards; those that invite new members, and those that care for those new members. Both are critical roles in growing a healthy membership base, but it’s the second role – the nurturer - that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Let’s further explore the role of the nurturer(s).

We often use these two words synonymously: orientation and onboarding. I would encourage you to separate those terms into two separate categorical events.

Orientation. A one-time event where we talk about organization history, legacy club events, dues, and other “technical” information.

Onboarding. The process of developing and integrating a new member into an organization over a period of time to methodically engage them into the club culture. During that process, helping them find an avenue for engagement that is suitable for them, and on a timeframe that is appropriate for them.

To grow healthy, vibrant clubs with engaged members, review your club’s onboarding process and ask how you can participate in a way that suits your skills. Together, let’s Be the Inspiration and position our clubs to be a “growing” success.

Jennifer Deroin, '18-'19 D5400 Governor

PE Sack Lunch

All Club President-Elects are invited to attend a monthly ZOOM meeting with your fellow classmates to learn all about whats expected as you prepare for your role as Club President 2019-2020. The monthly get-together is informal and will take place every 2nd Friday from noon to 12:50.

Attend by computer, tablet, smart or rotary phones. The agenda each month will vary but the meetings will focus on what you need to be doing NOW to prepare for your year as club president.

D5400 RYE Prepares for another exciting year

D5400 will host 15 Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students from 12 countries starting August. They'll go to camp near Ketchum Aug. 24-26 to complete the Inbound Orientation, which will address “best practices” and “lessons learned” to prepare them for a fun and successful exchange year. We also shamelessly let them know they have arrived in the best spot for exchange in theentire United States. Thank you to the 14 clubs hosting this year, Rotarians who serve as Youth Exchange Officers and Counselors, and especially host families who stepped up to receive a student for 3-4 months. We simply could not have this program without you.

A conscious goal for this year is to connect Rotarians host clubs (and others as well) with students for a “date night”. The stated objective of RYE is to give a clear picture of American culture. Having Rotarians take these courageous youngsters out for a meal (they ALWAYS appreciate free food!) and a movie or some kind of community event hits the bullseye of that objective. We're focusing on this objective, so if your club is hosting a student there's a good chance you'll see a sign-up sheet.

The other side of RYE relates to outbound RYE students; the 12 Idaho teenagers going overseas. This is a relatively small class and we ask all D5400 Rotarians to actively look for exemplary 14-17 year olds in for future youth exchange. Interested students can talk to Beth or Mike, or read more here.

Please volunteer for a date night on the sign-up sheets at your meetings and spread the word about RYE to students in your community that are great American ambassadors.

Mike Markley, Rotary Youth Exchange Outbound Coordinator

license plates are in

Go to any DMV and get yours today! The initial fee is only $35, then $25 annually thereafter.

40% of profits go to Boise Southwest's Foundation, and 60% is divided between the two districts in Idaho based on the number of plates sold in each. Additionally, Boise Southwest provides an annual report to the Idaho DOT detailing howdistrict and the Boise Southwest funds were spent.

'17-'18 TRF summary

The last of June contributions to PolioPlus and Annual Fund-SHARE were posted by The Rotary Foundation mid-July. District goals for giving to these funds are the sum of the club goals, and we exceeded the goals in both categories: more than $209,000 to the Annual Fund and more than $61,000 to PolioPlus.

TRF awards recognition banners to 100% Foundation Giving Clubs (>$100/capita and everyone gives >$25 to one of the recognized funds for this category), 100% Every Rotarian Every Year Clubs (per capita giving to Annual Fund is >$100 and every member gave > $25 to Annual Fund) and to the top 3 per capita giving clubs to Annual Fund. American Falls, Boise Centennial, Boise Metro, Emmett, Rigby and Western Treasure Valleyare the 100% Foundation Giving Clubs. American Falls, Boise Centennial, Boise Metro and Rigby are the 100% EREY Clubs.The top giving clubs to Annual Fund were Boise Metro ($357/capita), Blue Lakes-Twin Falls ($227/capita) and Boise Centennial ($212/capita).

Although a recognition banner is not awarded for PolioPlus giving, I want to recognize the top per capita giving clubs: Jerome ($180/capita), Blue Lakes-Twin Falls ($81/capita) and Boise Metro ($79/capita).

Banners will be sent to the DG in the Fall for distribution. Every dollar we contribute helps us as Rotarians to change the world one book, one meal, one immunization at a time.

View a historical analysis of D5400 giving here:

Marianne Barker, District Foundation Chair

RylA success - now keep students involved

Your sponsored students from the RYLA Leadership Camp are awaiting invitations to speak to your members. Each of them worked on a community service project proposal (which we call Issues2Action). Be sure to ask about the project and how your club can support the effort when you invite them to speak.

The District Governor speech was memorable, with Jennifer Deroin gracing the stage in her bright red Stomp Out Polio sneakers. Jennifer set the tone with the experience that caused her to take Rotary service seriously.

RYLA 2018 was a success - the planning, training, logistics and facilities all ran smoothly, allowing leaders to focus on the students. Many thanks to Rotarians Saeid, Mina, Victora and Jason for the hard work over the last 11 months that made the Leadership Camp possible.

My favorite quote from RYLA closing circle was “I’ve never been in a more loving environment in my life.” I'm leaving out other great quotes that we hear every year, like “Best Camp Ever”, “I’ve lived 4 weeks in just 4 days” and “I’ve made more friends at RYLA than I have in the last two years.”

Todd Fischer, District Membership Chair

Shoe That Grows, Grew

Kenton Lee of Nampa Rotary has expanded his The Shoe That Grows product to go commercial! Each purchase helps the Idaho nonprofit continue to meet its goal of providing kids with shoes that allow them to walk further down the path of life. Check out their Kickstarter page and get a discounted pair before they go viral!

August 4th, 2018

idaho team Addresses Chronic Malnutrition

Semilla Nueva (SN) is a familiar organization to many Idaho Rotarians, a its Rotarian founder, Curt Bowen, has spoken at many D5400 conferences and clubs. Support from Rotary has been critical to its success.

Guatemala has the highest level of malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere, largely due to citizens receiving half of their calories from nutrient-scarce corn, inhibiting the development of children's bodies and brains due to a lack of protein from Lysine and Tryptophan. SN targeted this issue by utilizing non-GMO corn breeding techniques to create a “Fortaleza 3” variant available to commercial farmers in most major corn growing regions of the country.

This is not being sold to the Guatemalan public as an effective solution to the chronic malnutrition. Instead, farmers are receiving what they're looking for; high yields, drought resistance, and low-cost seeds. Hard lessons learned over the last 3-5 years have shown that working with farmers is the way to achieve rapid and sustainable scalability. The market aggressively embraced the first sales of F3 this year and 100% of the seed produced in early 2018 was sold within a few weeks.

The SN board will be visiting D5400 clubs to fundraise for a Global Grant to fund rapid and large scale production of the F3 seeds. SN's goal is to improve over 1M diets in Guatemala by the time the grant term ends in three years. At the end of this time, the organization also seeks to move the “costs covered by sales” from the current 21% to ~72%. They're striving to have $170K committed by the end of 2018.

A Global Grant can truly apply this life-changing solution to an entire nation in three years, and SN believes this will be one of the fastest growing efforts that Rotary has ever supported.

If you are interested in contributing, email John Lodal or learn more here. We are now on the edge of quietly populating Guatemala with healthy kids and prosperous farmers with a solution that got its start right here in Idaho. Let’s change the world.

John Lodal – Semilla Nueva Board Chairman & Boise Sunrise Rotarian

polio Eradication update

One new Wild Polio case reported this week. What is that Polio Eradication Picture? It's a picture of Molvi Hameedullah Hameedi - a prominent religious scholar in a mountainous rural area of Killa Abdullah district, one of the poorest districts in the Balochistan province, Pakistan. With a close connection to his community, who are mostly Pashtuns, he was previously skeptical of the safety and effectiveness of the Oral Polio Vaccine. But following a two-day International Ulema Conference he became an advocate of routine immunization of all children and since that time, there have been no new Wild Polio cases reported in his district! The three year Countdown to History starts after the final Wild Polio case.

Today, we start over on the count of weeks since the report of the most recent Wild Polio case.
Rotary is committed to raise $50 Million (including Rotarian, public, and DDF donations) to be matched by $100 mil from the Gates Foundation - for each of the next two years - for a total of $450 million for the Global Polio Eradication effort. In the 2017-18 Rotary Year, we donated slightly over $50 Million!

Quote of the Day - "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The Final Three Endemic Countries:

Pakistan: No new Polio cases reported this week. Three Polio cases reported in 2018 - the most recent case was from Dukki, Balochistan Province with an onset of paralysis on 5/18/18. Eight cases reported in 2017. Three new Polio-Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Pakistan.

Afghanistan: One new Polio case reported this week. Ten Polio cases reported in 2018 - the most recent case was from the Kunar province with the onset of paralysis on 06/22/18. Fourteen cases reported in 2017. Preparations are underway for August National Immunization Days. Five new Polio-Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Afghanistan.

Nigeria: No new Wild Polio cases have been reported in 2017 or 2018. The most recent Polio case was reported on 8/20/16. Nigeria has once again gone 1-3/4 years without a Wild Polio case.

Lodal's Toronto

I have been a member Boise Sunrise Rotary since 2009. I'm proud to be associated with Rotary and always “turn up my gain” when other Rotarians speak. These are individuals I admire and who seek to embody Service Above Self. One message I've heard from time to time is that every Rotarian should make plans to attend at least one international convention. Up until 2018, these events never seemed to work out for my calendar but the message was still there in my head. In late 2017, as I reviewed the locations of upcoming RI Conventions, Toronto jumped out at me. I had never been there and always wanted to visit this city, so I signed up.

I had an enjoyable and educational and truly unique time in Toronto for 4 days. Please let me elaborate.

Being among 25,000+ Rotarians is something that went straight to my core. The service these individuals were performing was tangible and made for stories I wanted to hear. The well-orchestrated morning sessions lasted 2 hours and were full of interesting speakers. I rarely found myself bored or disinterested, and consistently left sessions motivated to define an action plan going forward.

From there, we found the House of Friendship (HoF) and various breakout sessions. I learned a LOT about how to do our jobs well and met a number of high-performance, low-drag people of action and compassion. While the sessions were valuable, personal interactions were my most pleasant memories.

I have never been part of such an intensely international gathering as the RI Convention. Literally, there were attendees from every country on the earth, and each about 30 seconds away from being a new friend on a first-name basis. Wow. They all had compelling stories to tell, were excellent listeners with high character and our interactions led to memorable exchanges. I often found myself checking world maps after breakout sessions to ensure I was clear on exactly where this work was being done.

So, I offer all of you a validation of the recommendation I had received from many of my Rotarian friends. Make an effort to attend an RI Convention and see what happens while you are there. I believe I am likely going to be in Hamburg next June and, if my plan works out, I think there will be a D5400 presence in the HOF there. I am a proud Rotarian and was able to see this more clearly while a part of this impressive international gathering on the northwest corner of Lake Erie. Maybe you can join in the fun in Germany in 2019.